Arkansas official: Deaths from flu could top 50 LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas is at the peak of a flu season that has already killed 25 people in the state, but could see the number of flu-related deaths double in the coming weeks, the state’s epidemiologist warned lawmakers on Friday. Dr. Dirk Haselow told members of the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committees that the state is investigating several additional deaths to see if they are related to the flu. Haselow said he...

Lawmakers look at rules for abortion banLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas legislators didn’t raise any objections Friday to a set of rules enforcing a state law approved last year banning most abortion 20 months into a woman’s pregnancy. With no discussion or questions, members of the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committees reviewed the changes to the rules for abortion facilities that incorporate the 20-week ban. The state Board of Health is set to vote on the rules ...

Federal judge may consolidate Whirlpool lawsuits FORT SMITH (AP) — A federal judge is weighing whether to consolidate two lawsuits against Whirlpool Corp. over pollution at its former factory in Fort Smith. U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes said in an order issued Wednesday that the lawsuits are nearly identical and were filed at the same time in state court. They have since been moved to federal court. The Southwest Times record reported one lawsuit is on behalf of 10 homeowners and the other...

Greenwood to intervene in school-funding lawsuit GREENWOOD (AP) — The Greenwood School Board has unanimously voted to intervene in a lawsuit that challenges how the state funds public schools. The board voted 6-0 on Thursday to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the Deer/Mount Judea School District. Last fall, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the lawsuit brought up new school funding claims that weren’t addressed by the long-running Lake View case that ended in 2007. The high court sent ...

UA trustees laud Gearhart amid budget flap LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Trustees of the University of Arkansas expressed support Friday for the chancellor of the system’s Fayetteville campus amid a fiscal crisis and allegations that he ordered employees to destroy documents subject to disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Board chairman Jane Rogers read an open letter to Chancellor G. David Gearhart at the trustees’ meeting Friday, and her fellow board members adopted it as a ...

UA trustees accept audit detailing $4.2M deficit LITTLE ROCK (AP) — University of Arkansas System trustees agreed Thursday that administrators at the Fayetteville campus are making sufficient changes to ensure that the decisions that led to a $4.2 million deficit in the college’s fundraising division won’t be repeated. The board’s audit committee devoted fewer than 10 minutes to discussing 16 findings from two separate audit reports that outlined problems in the advancement division. The rep...

Language approved for 3 ballot measures LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The secretary of state’s office says it’s cleared the way for three proposed constitutional amendments to appear on this year’s ballot, despite questions about who is in charge of preparing the ballot measure language. An attorney with the secretary of state’s office told lawmakers Thursday it had used language from the attorney general’s office and from legislation to prepare the three proposals. The measures must be publis...

Judge rules in favor of public retirement system LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A judge has ordered a real estate company to pay the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System $14.9 million in a breach of contract lawsuit. The Arkansas attorney general’s office said Tuesday that National Timber Partners LLC of Williamstown, Mass. didn’t finish paying off its agreement to buy the system’s $110 million interest in an investment fund. Tuesday’s ruling by Circuit Judge Tim Fox ordered the company to pay th...

UAMS opens statewide sickle cell treatment program LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Adult sickle cell patients across the state will have better access to treatment under a new clinic launched Tuesday by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. About 1,300 adults and children in Arkansas suffer from the hereditary disease, which causes painful episodes that often bring complications, such as bone infections, stroke and kidney disease. Sickle cell patients living in medically underserved rural areas ...

Applications for heating assistance being accepted BENTON (AP) — The Central Arkansas Development Council is taking applications to help low-income families pay heating bills. The CADC uses the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to help residents in 12 counties with heating bills and accepts applications on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are being taken in Calhoun; Clark; Columbia; Dallas; Hot Spring; Lonoke; Montgomery; Ouachita; Pike; Pulaski; Saline; and Union countie...

Many remain wary of W.Va. water as smell lingers CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The smell lingers — the slightly sweet, slightly bitter odor of a chemical that contaminated the water supply of West Virginia’s capital more than a week ago. It creeps out of faucets and shower heads. It wafts from the Elk River, the site of the spill. Sometimes it hangs in the cold nighttime air. For several days, a majority of Charleston-area residents have been told their water is safe to drink, that the concentrat...

Pope County Sheriff announces retirementPope County Sheriff Aaron DuVall announced on Friday his plans to retire at the end of the year. A statement issued by DuVall said he would serve out the rest of this term, ending on Dec. 31, but would not seek re-election. DuVall has served at the Pope County Sheriff’s Office since April 1983, when he began as a deputy. He served under sheriffs Jim Bolin and Jay Winters, working his way up to patrol supervisor, gaining experience in the admin...

Senators back $1.1 trillion fed budget billLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas’ two U.S. senators have voted for a $1.1 trillion budget bill that eases the harshest effects of last year’s automatic budget cuts. Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman voted for the measure Thursday that passed the Senate on a 72-26 vote. The bill funds the government through September and funds every agency of government. The bill heads now to the White House for President Barack O...

Hill: $568K raised for congressional bid LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Little Rock banking executive French Hill’s campaign says he raised $568,000 in the final months of 2013 in his bid for a central Arkansas congressional seat. Hill’s campaign announced Thursday that he had $534,000 in the bank for his bid for the 2nd Congressional District. Hill announced he was seeking the Republican nomination for the seat in October after Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin said he wouldn’t seek a third term...

New trial ordered for death row inmate LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new trial for a death row inmate who confessed to the murder and mutilation of a woman at a transient camp in 2001, ruling that he wasn’t mentally fit to stand trial 12 years ago. Justices reversed Rickey Dale Newman’s 2002 capital murder conviction in the slaying of 46-year-old Marie Cholette near Van Buren in Crawford County. Newman’s attorney had argued that Newman wasn’t m...

Ross raises $540K in final months of ’13 for bid LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Mike Ross again outpaced his chief Republican rival in fundraising for the state’s top office, bringing in more than $540,000 during the last three months of 2013, according to campaign finance reports filed Wednesday. Ross, a former congressman and the only Democrat running for governor, reported having more than $2.5 million in the bank at the end of 2013. Wednesday was the deadline for can...

Special election bodes ill for health plan LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A Republican takeover of a northeast Arkansas state Senate seat dims the prospects for continuing the state’s compromise Medicaid expansion plan and could be a troubling early sign for Democrats who had hoped to rebound from recent losses at the polls. Republican John Cooper’s victory in Tuesday’s special election gives Republicans a 22-13 majority in the Senate and takes away a key vote for the “private option” Medicaid exp...

People wait for tap water to be cleared in West VirginiaCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Downtown businesses and restaurants reopened Tuesday following last week’s chemical spill, but many people waited yet another day for officials to tell them their tap water was safe. So far, about 39 percent of West Virginia American Water’s customers have been allowed to use their water again after a chemical spilled into the Elk River on Thursday, state officials said. More than 200 restaurants have reopened where th...

NJ GOP Gov. Christie: ’We let down the people’ TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Republican Gov. Chris Christie, faced with a widening political scandal that threatens to undermine his second term and a possible 2016 presidential run, apologized again Tuesday, saying his administration “let down the people we are entrusted to serve” but the issue doesn’t define his team or the state. On the eve of his second term, he opened his annual State of the State address by touching only briefly on the apparent ...

US judge strikes down Okla. same-sex marriage ban TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A federal judge struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban Tuesday, but headed off any rush to the altar by setting aside his order while state and local officials complete an appeal. It was the second time in a month that a federal judge has set aside a deeply conservative state’s limits on same-sex marriage, after Utah’s ban was reversed in December. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern described Oklahoma’s ban on...